What Goddess Lakshmi taught me about Wealth and Bitcoin

Even though I started buying Bitcoin in 2016, my deeper understanding of Bitcoin wouldn’t have happened without first understanding Goddess Lakshmi. Through this writing, I tried to understand her view of wealth based on my perspective. My download of Lakshmi and Bitcoin came to me while I attended a tantra retreat with the Embodied Awakening Academy three years ago as part of their deity worship practice. Since then she has opened up opportunities for me to devote my time to Bitcoin.

Deity worship is a form of Tantra practice to open your heart and embody divine intelligence. The sages of Tantra have known for centuries that when you follow the path of deity worship, seeing, feeling, sensing, and receiving the sacred feminine and masculine principles personified by the gods and goddesses, these gifts can manifest within you. These deities will put you in a state of flow where your actions become effortless and graceful. 

In Hinduism, Goddess Lakshmi is depicted as the goddess of wealth, prosperity, and abundance. She is the consort of God Vishnu, the preserver and protector of the universe. Lakshmi blesses our lives with joy, beauty, and inner and outer abundance. One of the tools to embody her is to understand the different symbolism of this Devi. We often see the picture of Lakshmi, dressed in a red saree and adorned with gold, sitting on a lotus with a jug in her hand and surrounded by white elephants. She is depicted as a goddess with four arms.

Her four arms represent the four goals of human life, which are dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (desire), and moksha (liberation). Lakshmi left hand performed an Abhaya Mudra, which is a gesture of reassurance, protection, and safety. While her lower right hand performed a Varada Mudra, which signifies compassion and sincerity. Both from her hands flowed gold that landed in a pot.

The two elephants in the back represent that richness is not limited. The lotus flower she holds symbolizes purity and an enlightened mind, and the lotus flower where she sits on represents the non-duality of life. A beautiful lotus flower emerged from something dark and muddy, it showed us that everything is a unity: good and evil, dark and light, yin and yang, feminine and masculine.

As we studied this imagery, I concluded that wealth has a purpose: to liberate you, fulfill your desires, and bring out the best in you so that you can do good for more people. To attract abundance one also need to act with compassion and sincerity. The wealth you accumulate will bring you a sense of safety and security. Your wealth can be your vehicle to enlightenment. 

Our current financial system compares to Lakshmi’s value.

Lakshmi’s imagery represents ideal wealth. But does her imagery fit with our current system? Does the current system liberate and bring out the best in us?

We have seen that the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting insanely richer. Most of us are faced with the harsh reality that prices get more expensive every day. The price went double or even tripled than it used to be. We have the latest and greatest technology that is supposed to save our time, yet we are busier than ever. Many of us can’t afford to buy our own home, so we become renters. Many of us delayed getting married or having kids because these cost money. Many of us suffered from abandonment issues because our parents were not present when we were kids, simply because they were too busy working. Many elderly people need to go back to work after retiring because their pension can no longer sustain their lives. Many of us suffered from consumerism because we were brainwashed into believing that our happiness was determined by the things we bought.

Why is that? Why things have to be this way? Does wealth need to be so hard to attain?

There is no artha (wealth) in the fiat system

Our current financial system is called the fiat system. The fiat system is based on trust in the government. This system was introduced in 1971 when the dollar was no longer pegged to gold, and soon other countries followed. As a result, when the government issues currency, there is no tangible asset backing it. You are expected to trust that the government will maintain its value and integrity. However, this trust is often misplaced. The government has managed to debase our currency, increase its supply, and erode our purchasing power by about 2 percent every year. We call this inflation.

By printing more money, the government flooded the market with new money. Price then will increase because the supply of goods and services does not increased at the same rate. Inflation erodes our purchasing power overtime. The same amount of money can buy fewer things than before. So year after year at minimum your money worth less 2 percent every year. At an accelerated rate, some countries can lost its purchasing power by the millions percent due to hyperinflation. Making your money and wealth that you accumulate becomes worthless.

This happened in Venezuela, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, and many more countries. More and more currencies around the world are on the brink of collapse, including the Dollar and the Euro. For example, since its creation in 1999, the Euro has lost 64 percent of its purchasing power, something you bought in 1999 would now cost almost three times as much.

Your fiat money is like an ice cube, the value continues to melt away as time goes by.

There is no moksha (liberation) in the fiat system

Because of the fiat system and inflation, people keep losing money, and people keep losing wealth. This is why it has become so common for people to spend their entire lives working from nine to five until they are 65 years old or more. Sometimes they have to take on two or three jobs just to meet their needs. We call this the rat race. You are forced to work until you are old, and the money you save for your future will lose its value due to inflation. The harsh truth many will never be able to live comfortably with the money they save now. We are living in a form of modern slavery, where the slaves house and feed themselves. The bondage comes in the form of mortgages, credit card debt, student loans, and more. In the fiat system, you are forced to work, and you are encouraged to take on debt because the entire system is based on debt. This debt is how the banks create money out of thin air.

There is no kama (desire) in the fiat system

As inflation becomes increasingly difficult to manage, many people find their desires, even the simplest ones, become unattainable. Most people aspire to build a family and own valuable property. But how can you build a family if you’re struggling with finances? How can you start a family if you can’t even afford to buy a home? Inflation and rising prices hinder us from creating meaningful relationships and living fulfilling lives simply because everything is too expensive. Additionally, as people work more to make ends meet, they often sacrifice their desires. How many of you have heard of individuals who work tirelessly at a company with the hope that one day they can retire and finally visit that paradise island they’ve always dreamed of? Why can’t they just go now? 

The fiat system conditions us to chase false desires, driving us to buy one piece of trash after another. We have seen an increase in junk products over the years. Factories have purposefully made their products obsolete after a certain period because they want to ensure they continue making money. If they just create a lasting product, the company won’t survive for very long.

We’ve become fixated on instant gratification, consuming wasteful things that make it harder to appreciate what truly matters. Just look at modern architecture, art, and music—none of it holds the same soul as it once did.

There is no dharma (righteousness) in the fiat system

Because it’s so hard to keep up with the rate of inflation, people have started engaging in riskier investments. Many fall into scams that promise quick wealth. At worst, some begin scamming others for money or, at the very least, provide goods or services of the lowest quality, failing to add any real value. People become greedy. Instead of supporting and helping each other, they start thinking in terms of “what’s in it for me.” Many have lost their sense of belonging in the community, creating problems in human relationships.

The fiat system is also a tool to finance wars. In the past, if the government wanted to go to war, it needed to tax the people or issue war bonds. But nowadays, the government can simply print money to finance their wars, leaving future generations to pay the hidden tax through inflation. As the issuer of the world reserve currency, the United States has waged many wars to maintain its hegemony. A world reserve currency is a currency that is widely accepted and used around the world for international trade and as a store of value. With this power, the United States can increase its military budget and spend it on wars to ensure its world reserve currency status.

From the observations above, it’s clear that the wealth Lakshmi speaks of is not based on the current financial system. So, what kind of wealth does Lakshmi refer to?

The money Goddess Lakshmi preferred

To obtain wealth, first you need to choose the right form of money. Lakshmi carried a pot of gold. The pot represents her savings. Lakshmi doesn’t teach us to get a loan or a mortgage. Lakshmi teaches us to save. Her pot isn’t filled with dollars or euros—it’s filled with gold. Now gold, is a hard money.

Hard money is money that can’t be easily debased, faked, or produced in excess. The harder it is to produce, the harder the money is. Here are some of the characteristic of hard money

We can see that the Dollar, the Euro, and the Pound don’t meet all the criteria for hard money. But is gold still the preferred form of money? While it’s true that gold has historically been hard money, it is no longer the best option in today’s world. This is primarily because we’re no longer using gold as everyday currency like in the past.

Storing and transporting gold is extremely costly and risky. Additionally, it’s not easy to divide gold into smaller amounts for transactions. As a result, gold has been largely replaced by paper contracts, which are heavily controlled and manipulated by central banks. The banks have repeatedly issued more gold paper contracts than the actual gold they hold.

Currently, the biggest holders of gold are the central banks. Since they are the ones who accumulate gold, they have a vested interest in controlling and manipulating its price. Central banks can artificially control the price by leasing gold to financial institutions, increasing the supply of gold in the market. They can also create economic policies that make gold less attractive than bonds and stocks, thereby lowering its price.

Gold is no longer a free form of hard money like it used to be.

The Lotus, Pot and Water: Scarcity and Energy

Lakshmi is often depicted standing or sitting on a lotus, a flower that emerges from mud. It takes months for a lotus to grow, from germination to sprouting, all of which happens in the dark, within the mud. As the foundation of Lakshmi, the lotus symbolizes that something beautiful can arise from something ugly.

When Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008, the financial world was in chaos, shrouded in darkness. The global economy was facing its worst crisis due to the subprime mortgage meltdown, and the government responded by printing more money and bailing out failed banks. Many people lost their homes and wealth, and since then, the global economy has continued to struggle.

But Satoshi had a different idea—he envisioned creating a new system and proposed a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The whitepaper represented the germination of the lotus, and two months later, Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin Core program. From there, the blossoming process began.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, free from control by any government or billionaire. It is backed by energy and operates completely differently from the current fiat system. While the dollar, the euro, the pound, and other currencies are printed more and more each day, Bitcoin has a hard cap of 21 million coins. This means no more than 21 million bitcoins will ever be created. This fixed supply is embedded in Bitcoin’s code and cannot be altered. Because of its scarcity and similarity to gold, this is why Bitcoin is called the digital gold.

Water is energy, and money is energy. The lotus on which Lakshmi stands is surrounded by water, and the lotus could not exist without it. Similarly, Bitcoin would not exist without energy. New bitcoins come into existence because energy is used to solve complex mathematical problems combined with probability. Water and energy share similar characteristics: they can be stored, are fundamental to all known life, and can change forms. When you mine Bitcoin, you are essentially storing the value of energy for the future. You are using energy now and can spend it later. There is no other form of money as sophisticated as this.

Water also has currents and flows, gathering into larger bodies of water. Similarly, wealth tends to accumulate into larger piles. To discuss wealth, we need to revisit the concept of hard money.

Bitcoin is much harder money than gold. It is more scarce, harder to produce, easy to transport, and durable because it is digital. Bitcoin is also easy to divide; 1 BTC can be divided into 100,000,000 units called sats, similar to cents in a dollar.

Due to Bitcoin’s scarcity and decentralized nature, saving in Bitcoin allows you to purchase more over time. For example, in 2016, the average house price in Los Angeles was $510,000, and it took 814 BTC to buy a house when Bitcoin was priced between $500 and $900. By August 2024, that same amount of Bitcoin can now buy you 60 houses at current market prices. With a Bitcoin standard, everything becomes cheaper over time.

Since Bitcoin has become the most valuable and limited asset in human history, many are racing to accumulate it—from average individuals to multi-billionaires and even countries. All the big money is now flowing into Bitcoin. However, neither a country nor a billionaire can manipulate Bitcoin prices, and no one can create more Bitcoin to lower the price.

Bitcoin is accessible to everyone. You can buy a fraction of Bitcoin with as little as a penny, start accepting payments in Bitcoin, and even begin mining it. As you accumulate Bitcoin and start using it for payments, you’ll attract more abundance into your life.

With no signs of money printing slowing down, accumulating Bitcoin increases your purchasing power. Wealth (arta) is not measured by how much money you have, but by how much you can buy or exchange it for. Since holding Bitcoin results in stronger purchasing power, it allows you to afford more of what you desire (kama) and work fewer hours, giving you more time to enjoy life. Furthermore, Bitcoin is not controlled by anyone, so it cannot be taken away from you as long as you hold the private keys to your wallet. These private keys consist of 12 to 24 words that grant access to your Bitcoin. Essentially, Bitcoin is a store of wealth in information. By remembering these 12 to 24 words, you can always have your wealth with you. Bitcoin transcends physical space; you can take it anywhere with this piece of information. Bitcoin can bring total liberation (moksha). Anyone attempting to take your Bitcoin would have to do so by force.

This aspect also offers a new perspective on righteousness (dharma) in the context of Bitcoin. With other physical assets or money, authorities can confiscate them. Throughout history, stronger tribes have taken land, cattle, gold, and possessions by force. However, force is ineffective with Bitcoin. The owner must voluntarily give up their private keys or seed phrase. Violence will only result in the loss of Bitcoin. Bitcoin encourages collaboration and cooperation among people.

Lakshmi chooses Vishnu: Wealth chooses Wisdom

One of the famous stories about Lakshmi is how she came into this world. It is told that the gods and demons tried to find Amrita, the nectar of immortality, by churning the Ocean of Milk. The churning continued for eons, and from the Ocean of Milk emerged the celestial horse Uchhaishravas, the divine cow Kamadhenu, the powerful poison Halahala, and finally, the beautiful Goddess Lakshmi. Everyone was mesmerized by her beauty, and she illuminated the entire universe.

Many wished to marry Goddess Lakshmi; the richest and most powerful gods and demons wanted to take her hand. But Goddess Lakshmi chose Lord Vishnu, the wisest of all. Vishnu is the protector of the universe. Goddess Lakshmi was not swayed by wealth, power, or superficial displays of devotion. She sought a partner who embodied the virtues of righteousness, wisdom, and the ability to sustain and protect the universe.

This story draws significant parallels with Bitcoin. First, to create wealth, one must put in the work. The gods and demons churned the Ocean of Milk for eons—they had to make the effort. In Bitcoin, this concept is known as proof-of-work. Everyone who wants to obtain newly minted Bitcoin must mine it, expending energy and putting in the work—there are no shortcuts.

Secondly, Bitcoin teaches wisdom. Truly understanding Bitcoin requires an understanding of how the entire world system functions especially answering this fundamental question “What is Money?”. We’ve been conditioned by the fiat, centralized system, which makes grasping a truly decentralized system like Bitcoin seem challenging. Comprehending this new system demands not just knowledge but also experience, intuition, and sound judgment. To gain wisdom, one must shed previous conditioning and approach learning with a blank slate.

Moreover, from Lakshmi’s perspective, wealth is a holistic concept that encompasses material, spiritual, moral, and emotional well-being. Choosing the right form of money is essential to achieving fulfilling wealth according to her teachings. After selecting the right money, both inner and outer work become crucial for attaining and preserving true wealth.

The inner work we need to do involves balancing masculine and feminine energies. The masculine energy provides us with stability, accountability, and integrity, while the feminine energy offers creativity, empathy, and embodiment. Beyond inner work, the journey to wealth also requires equipping ourselves with the right knowledge and tools. Understanding how money works is one of the ways to attain this.

My journey to understanding Bitcoin has been unique and has given me a deeper perspective on wealth through Lakshmi’s lens. I hope it inspires you to see wealth not just as the accumulation of material assets, but as the nurturing of every aspect of your being, as portrayed by Goddess Lakshmi.

Acknowledgement

I want to express my gratitude to Tara Meegan and Chantelle Raven from the Embodied Awakening Academy for introducing me to Tantra and deity worship. I also want to thank Diana Baudach for her insights on this article, and Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert for inviting me to their show to share my thoughts on this topic. Finally, a special thank you to my beloved husband, Brett Merrill, for our ongoing discussions on Lakshmi and Bitcoin.